The Crossroads Blog Tour Day 2

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

Halloween is tricky over here in Australia because it’s not a traditional thing so a lot of people don’t even know what it is, which can be embarrassing when your kids insist on knocking on everyone’s doors. Plus, because we’re in the Southern Hemisphere it’s actually Spring, which means that it’s very light and sunny. Not the stuff that creepy memories are made of!

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

Many years ago my husband and I were having a drink in a bar in New Zealand. The place was once a sports store and the restroom was down in the basement. Anyway, while I was down there I was overwhelmed with the sense of death. The whole room felt like it was covered in blood and I immediately went back upstairs and told my husband we had to leave. Later I discovered that the previous owner had killed himself down in the basement. I still shudder when I think about it.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

My favorite Halloween memory actually isn’t from my childhood, but happened more recently as a mom. I always take my girl’s trick-or-treating in a nearby neighborhood with their friends. On this particular year, my children each had pretty large groups of friends. They looked so cute in their costumes – Hermione and an Elfish girl (a la Lord of the Rings). They were so independent, not afraid of the night at all, no longer a young child. They were both on the threshold of young adulthood. And while I was a little sad acknowledging the end of their young childhood, there was magic that night as I embraced the young women they were becoming.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

Yes, haunting. I was 11 and my mom and her new husband were looking for a new house for us. After combing through the MLS books a realtor friend had left us, we found what sounded like the perfect house in a nearby town – old Victorian architecture, stained glass windows, vaulted ceilings. We were so excited to see it. Without waiting for morning, we decided to drive by the house, just to see it in person. The house was on a corner lot. We pulled up and my skin instantly turned cold, goose-bumps racing down each arm. My pulse began to quicken as I opened the car door. Something wasn’t right. Not even close.

My parents and I got out of the car and stood on the sidewalk, looking up at the sprawling house. Never in my life have I ever felt fear the way I did in that moment. Tears sprang in my eyes. I looked at my mom. Her skin was white, her eyes moist. We looked at each other, got in the car and drove away as quickly as we could. We never looked and the house and never spoke of it again. But the three of us knew in that moment that we had visited something haunted for certain.

In a short paragraph or two:

What is your favorite Halloween memory?

We tend to go all out for Halloween. My husband even built a coffin for our outdoor display. He dresses up in full creepy skeleton gear and waits in the coffin for young trick-or-treaters to make their way through our fully animated maze. (Kids work hard to get candy at our house.) We rigged a walkie talkie system so I could alert hubs to the kids too young for such a fright – but a couple of years ago, I missed the cue and a very young Spiderman got the scare of his life. He dropped his bag of candy and ran so fast he was just a blue and red blur. The best part? He came back the next year, walked right up to the coffin, banged on the lid and said, “I’m on to you this time. You can’t scare me.” My husband FILLED that kid’s bag with candy.

Tell us about your most haunting experience.

My best friend has a sixth sense about “spirits”, and while I don’t know what I believe about all that, I trust her when she says something is a little off. My husband and I lived in a 100-year-old house out in the country for a few years. Big, open house with plenty of light. But the basement was cold, concrete, filled with cobwebs and according to my friend, host to a spirit.

Partly because of her warning, I refused to go down those rickety old stairs for anything. But the house had a sump pump and when the sewer backed up, the alarm would sound. My husband was out of town for the night when I heard that alarm for the first time. I crept down the stairs with my flashlight. Water dripped from a leaky tap. Spiderwebs caught in my hair, wisped across my face. The sump hadn’t backed up, and despite the distinct chill in the air, I spent 10 minutes looking for the cause of the alarm. Nothing. I went back to bed and was just nodding off when the alarm sounded again.

To this day, I have no idea why the alarm went off, but I’ll never forget the feeling I had walking down those stairs, as though someone was watching. * shiver *

Find The Crossroads:

Facebook | Twitter

How the Tour Works:

Each day of The Crossroads Blog Tour, a new research question will be revealed on The Crossroad Blog Tour main page: HERE and each day the answer to that question will be found within one of the different blog posts by Crossroads Tour authors. Your job is to get the question, read the blog posts, and collect all answers by the end of the tour.

This year the grand prize winner will be selected via a Rafflecopter draw open to everyone. However, the hunt for clues is a fun part of the Crossroads experience and we wanted to keep it alive. Sooooo, search for the answer somewhere on the participating blogs on THAT particular day of the tour. Answer all the questions correctly to enter a bonus prize draw for – separate from the grand prize.

Bonus question answers are to be emailed to judithgraves @ ymail dot com by October 26th at MIDNIGHT to enter the Bonus prize draw. Winner of the Grand prize and the winner of the Bonus prize will be announced on OCTOBER 31st – HALLOWEEN.

a Rafflecopter giveaway